Can you afford to miss out on the business opportunities of the emerging Blue Economy?

Can you afford to miss out on the business opportunities of the emerging Blue Economy?

I’ve been watching a LinkedIn conversation about “taking the immense risk that Climate Change is posing” and watched it transform into a believe/don’t believe conversation about human-induced climate change.

To me, sustainability advocates have a much more powerful challenge to make, especially to business players. We can ask them a different and more immediate set of questions:

What does the market place think about environmental issues?

What are your customers doing?

What are your suppliers doing?

What are the market leaders doing?

We don’t necessarily need to prove “climate change is true” – we just need to prove that there is a real case for business understanding of environmental issues. To me, the best proof we can offer is the action that’s already being taken – the radical business innovation programs underway across a range of markets and industries.

Is the perceived potential for major environmental disruption generating radical innovation in global business strategy and practice?

Is it safe to ignore the action that IKEA, Microsoft, Walmart, Hertz, Pepsico, Ford, Caterpillar, Phillips and Puma are taking?

Can you be sure that the news business models and strategies they are innovating won’t flow down the supply chain to your business?

Will your business/employer/industry be ready when they do?

Survival is not mandatory…

As Walter Stahel said in a recent article on the Circular Economy: “‘You don’t have to do any of this, survival is not mandatory’. … You can completely ignore all the concepts of the circular economy, but if one of your competitors picks it up and it’s successful, then you have solved your problem, because your company will disappear.”

If you’re certain that your best approach to sustainability is to push the panic button, this one has the advantage that it comes with a clear action path and way forward. Fear without the power to act generates powerlessness, anxiety, self-protection and short-term needs gratification. Fear plus a way forward generates action.

Fortunately, there’s a wealth of information about Regenerative Business and The Circular Economy available online, complete with training material. There are even workbooks and manuals for business consultants and coaches to use.

You probably still won’t engage the laggards of the innovation diffusion process, but you could gain more traction with the early adopters and early majority.